


Disaster Dinner

by Corny_Tyrannosaurus



Series: Love Reel [2]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Adventure, Consanguinamory, Drama & Romance, F/M, Monsters, References to Monsterverse, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-13 10:10:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21492613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corny_Tyrannosaurus/pseuds/Corny_Tyrannosaurus
Summary: The twins don’t want to hide their love to their family anymore, so they’ll going to organize an event a-la-Mabel to reveal the truth to their parents… if they can survive the night.
Relationships: Aaron Pines/Ann Pines, Dipper Pines/Mabel Pines, Jesus "Soos" Alzamirano Ramirez/Melody
Series: Love Reel [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1549117
Comments: 6
Kudos: 9





	1. The Bright Plan

_Well, heck._

Bright pink. This was not a sweater color Mabel could prefer to use and less with details at their edges instead of her more classic and reliable emblem in the front. The details were knitted like pig-like colored laces, delicately imprinted in the fabric in a way they looked like real laces. A true mastery of the knitting itself, but for Mabel, it was a symbol of her infinite despair. Because it took the specified time to do it, like a Penelope waiting to never end her tapestry. That was the sweater she was wearing, covering her like the destiny awaiting for them.

_Shessshh, why today?_

Mabel Pines, at her last year of teenage years, was standing in front the seal of her disastrous fate. She was in front of the calendar she put in the wall of her room, just aside her beloved desk she used for handcraft, staring intensely at the skull drew over a specific square of that month. A pink skull with hearts instead of eye sockets, and knitting needles instead of the classic bones. A great accomplishment, considering the little size of the drawing, but for Mabel was the seal of a last sentence. Six months ago, she had signed a promise with that skull, and in any moment Dipper could come thru the door of her room to reclaim said promise.

_Sure. “Pick a date, Mabel” He said. “We’ll do it together” He said._

Four knocks coming from the door came straight to her ears, and her eyes widened.

“Pass” She said in tender voice, turning to see who came in, already knowing who was. His face was pale, and his hands made into fists, not to say how messy his hair was, almost uncovering his forehead. Their eyes met for a moment, and the lovely glance they shared faded away in the moment Mabel turned back to the calendar.

“Weeeell, _today is the day_” Dipper said in a singing voice, smacking his hands against the sides of his pants. “Ready?”

Mabel sighed, closing her eyes as her head lowered in defeat. His voice, the only guarantee of security she could use to hold herself into that crazed situation, sounded as if he was waiting his chance to jump off the window. And she was feeling just like that. 

“Aaaargh!” Mabel grunted, taking her hands to her face, and walked furiously backwards until her legs hit her bed and she fell sit over the mattress. “Admit it Dipper! We can’t do this!” She yelled with terrified voice. Instantly, like an approval signal, Dipper let himself go, covering his face with his hands as well and recharging over the door, closing it violently.

“Aaargh! I know!” He yelled in the same terrified vibes.

“How did we ever thought we could do this?!” Mabel said, letting her hands fall over her legs.

“I don’t know!” Dipper answered, slipping over the door until he fell over the ground. “What were we thinking that was going to happen?!”

“San Francisco. We will end as the sanfransicoest of all sanfranciscos!!” Mabel said in stern, raspy voice, raising her hands with frustration.

“Totally… Aaaargh!” Dipper tried to answer, only to be engulfed again into the atmosphere of utter frustration.

“I mean – What the heck we’ve been doing all this time we had to plan it!?” Mabel yelled a last time. It was relieving to share a moment of utter and undeniable terror with her dear brother, but at the same time her mind put its own quote of growing frustration in the balance. Their eyes met again, but this time Dipper had ceased his own tirade. Instead, he was looking at her with his accustomed lovely glance that he tended to use when she was the one needing of reassurance about their relationship.

“I guess… That we’ve making sure that this was being for serious. “He said, instinctively looking away and rubbing his nape.

_Darn Dipper! Making me to want to jump over you and smooch you to death will not help us with this…_

Mabel sighed again, and looked back at the calendar. She drew a weak smile, as her eyes rolled to the pink skull in the calendar. “Yeeees, you’re right” She admitted in delighted defeat. “You’re such a dorkable dorky-dork, did you know?”

Dipper sighed, looking at the window in search of a miraculous answer to their problem.

“I’d like that to help us” He said in resigned voice. “Do you… still having those dreams?”

“Wha’? No, not anymore. But… I think about them. I guess we really hadn’t a chance after all” Mabel said with disappointment, and for a moment she lost in her thoughts…

Six months ago, give or take a few weeks, they had an argument. One of the last they could remember, and one of the strongest they could’ve had experienced. Both remembered with no amusement the yelling and the reddened rage, giving rounds about an inconceivable idea. The fact their parents weren’t at home was a mere coincidence, because that argument began spontaneously, with no warning. And was a luck, because the nature of said argument was beyond anything their parents could imagine nor accept.

And it lasted hours, and escalated as most of wars do, with no remorse or rest as their perspectives fell from the rational to the emotional. But when they began to use the heavy conversational artillery, and gave account that they had already begun to hurt each other in an intimate way, they just stared one to another with the most heartbreaking disbelief expressions that a human face could ever produce, and fell over the ground in exhausted sobbing.

The guilt they were feeling was just too much to handle, about how much one had hurt the other with the words they said, about how they couldn’t comprehend the schism between how happy they were in their new state of reality and the wrong it seemed with other’s eyes, and how it seemed like if all the love and respect of everyone around them would suddenly disappear when they know it. They crawled over the floor the short distance that was separating them, and finally having met, they shared the most untempered hug they had the strength to do.

And them, between their shaking bodies and the wetness of their faces, they promised they could at least try it.

So they made a deal. If their love lasted for six months, just six months, they were going to talk with their parents. The enough time to make themselves clear about their growing feelings, the enough to figure a plan… But it seemed that the first thing overpowered the rest.

Six months had passed, and none of them had already said a word of how they were going to talk with them.

“This is going to be a mess, won’t be?” Dipper broke his own silence, looking at Mabel with an improved version of his accustomed worried face.

_Heh, a mess… A mess. Wait a _momento_, a mess! That’s it!_

Mabel’s eyes illuminated with awe as a she grinned intensely and she lifted her head.

“That’s it” Mabel said softly but happily determinated. “A mess”

“What?” Dipper asked in confusion. Mabel raised from bed in a triumphal movement, and walked towards her brother.

“Dipper that’s the answer! A mess!”. She turned to her desk and took her soaked-in-glitter notebook she sed to planify her handcraft, and a random pencil among the ones that were scattered there, and returned to the bed.

“Oooo right, I don’t get it” Dipper said, even more confused. Mabel turned to him, still on the awe of her cleverest idea ever.

“Don’t you see Dipstick? There’s no way we can tell them. Every way we could conceive will end in disaster; every-single-of-them. So, we’re going to make _a_disaster, the disasterest of all disasters. Quick, think about the worst possible scenario!, you’re good with that” Mabel said with great amusement, as Dipper raised from ground with a deep frown of confusion.

“Mabes I still don’t getting it”

“Ok, this is the plan. If we know there’s no way to talk with them without make a whole mess, let’s create _thaaat_ mess”

“Like… a crash testing?” Dipper asked.

“Exactly! And we are going to be the sexy yellow dolls this time” Mabel replied, embracing his shoulders with her free arm. “Think about that. We know Mom and Dad, how they could react and what things they like. So if we’re the dolls…”

“…We can design the air bags!” Dipper answered, being imbued in her sister’s enthusiasm. “We… we can make them see” He said with a softer voice. For first time in months, he felt like the heavy burden they were lifting suddenly got lighter. Mabel shifted position, and faced him with the same relieved vibes.

“We will make them see” She said as well. Then, soaked in the sole idea of that kind of relief, their eyes closed and their lips met, in that sort of happy kiss only given at the edge of an ending crisis. Their faces got apart, and their eyes opened, both letting themselves at the feeling they were feeling.

“This is going to get wrong, won’t it?” Dipper asked.

“That’s the plan” She asked, her grin increasing.

“Hold on. If we have to set it like that, that means we have to…”

“Yep” Mabel answered “We’ll have to talk with him”.

“He will never accept. We have still to compensate him for all the trouble we got for him…”

“Pff! Come on Dip, we’re talking about him. He will be glad to help us…”


	2. Partners in Pine

School Gym, Piedmont’s High School. A day later…

“No” Aiden shouted in a direct, very serious tone, as he put his rusted dumbbells back in their shelf. Of all the things he could have been possibly be requested, that was the worst conceivable (or at least the worst he could imagine at that moment, given the nature of said request). He got off his fingerless gloves as he walked towards his locker, so Dipper followed him as well across the gym, still trying to convince him.

“Aiden, just think about it. We can’t just hope to hide from our own family the rest of our lives and we don’t want to force you out of your own plans. We… we want to try it” Dipper said to him.

“Oh right, and do you seriously think that Mabel’s plan is going to work? If I was surely going to say her ‘no’, what makes you think that I’ll have a different answer for you? Don’t think me bad, we are friends after all, but I’m still closer to Mabel than I am to you. And thaaat’s why I know this is just one of her usual _bunkers-dunkens_ plans, as she calls them, and you should too” Aiden reassured, taking his towel from a random machine.

“That’s precisely why I’m here, we are consciously making mistakes. It’s like… reverse engineer” Dipper replied, avoiding for inches to hit his knees against a sudden exercise chair. “Aiden, you know we couldn’t ask you more than you had already done for us if we hadn’t to; this is a special case. We need you” Dipper reassured in an apologetic tone. But just before to open the door of his locker, Aiden turned to face him, and put a hand over his shoulder.

“Man… Sighhh. When I told you for myself that I knew about what was happening I promised you to keep an eye in every misstep I could see you were making… And this, this is one of said missteps. This is going to blown up in your faces, and you know it” Aiden said, looking at his comrade (and unexpected former love rival) with his protective glance, the one he only made with Mabel. He turned back to his locker, and opened the door to drop more contents inside.

“Mabel has been having dreams” Dipper said, using his last resource. Aiden’s eyes widened in frozen fear, and his entire body just stopped in the exact position in which he was. “It has to do with the thing you don’t want to talk us about, right?”. Aiden lowered his head and rested his hand on the doorframe. This time, he had been caught off guard.

“What… what kind of dreams?” He asked in low voice.

“She had told me they’re about how we fail to tell them, or how we are being discovered”. Aiden passed his free hand over his face in utter frustration, clear sign of what he was yielding. But Dipper couldn’t declare victory, not yet.

“And I guess she wasn’t going to tell me that” Aiden reassured, turning around to face Dipper once again. “Oh right, you have my attention”

“We only need you to be there, because when we tell them the first thing Dad’s gonna ask is ‘_who else knows about this’_ and he’s going to panic if you’re out of reach to say you’ll keep the secret for yourself” Dipper said. Aiden remembered how their father was, and he wasn’t going to have a good time being asked about how he knew it. So he grunted a little as he closed his eyes, to open them again just a moment after with a much more relieved expression.

“I’ll give you points for that, but I don’t promise anything. Just… I’m just gonna think it over and I’ll give you an answer tomorrow, right?” Aiden finally said.

“Thanks, Aiden” Dipper said with sincere voice.

“Just keep your head in place man, ok?” Aiden answered. “If this is going to set me free I don’t want to be potentially traumatized… again”

\- Mabel’s room, Pines Residence. That same afternoon…

“Oh right _brosheopo_, we’ll proceed to the next stage” Mabel asserted from her bed, marking as check the square aside the ‘_convince Aiden to join the mission’ _sign. “Now, we will proceed with…”

“The grunkles” Dipper said form the floor, with not-so-amused tone.

“What’s wrong?” Mabel asked, lifting her sight out of the notebook.

“I don’t know, just… I was thinking in what Aiden said. Aren’t we going too far?” Dipper asked.

“I… We have to trust Mom and Dad. I mean – It is not a little dumb idea to think they’ll spontaneously hate us for this, is not like were trying to hurt anyone, right?” Mabel said with low voice, looking away at the doors with her head lowered. Sometimes, just the initial thrill of the plan wasn’t enough to keep her optimistic about it. But then she felt the supporting glance of her brother, and turned back to see him with a growing smile. “You can’t stand to see your dear sisfriend in distress, can’t you?” she asked.

“Nop. I can’t” Dipper replied with proud.

“You drama king…” Mabel said, grabbing a pillow and launching it towards him. Dipper received the hit with awe, and put the pillow away his face.

“I’ll write the letter” He requested… 

\- Mystery Shack, Gravity Falls; Oregon. A few days later…

The cloudy morning skies of Gravity Falls welcomed the pair of brave adventurers in their return to their home. Fishing hooks, metallic boxes, coffins with golden contents inside, and lots of other stuff fell over the ground in front of the door, coming from the black, rusted van. The clapping of tiny, chubby hands added a more happy atmosphere at the already good vibes of their coming, and old but strong hands took the fattish baby away from her mother’s arms with unsaid enthusiasm.

“Look who has grown in our absence! Come here you little love bulk!” Stan yelled with merry, lifting the little Stan Jr. high with his stretched arms. The baby smiled and laughed intensely as he waved his arms with childish thrill, being happy as well to see the old man who was grumpy and crude with everyone except with him. Melody looked at him with warm content, as he lowered the little Stan Jr. and embraced him, giving him fast and continuous kisses in his squishy cheeks. “I can’t believe my handyman made you, little _Moue_” Stan said.

“It’s a factory secret, Mr Pines” Soos claimed with proud as he took some wallets between his arms and got inside the shack, sharing a brief but flirty glance with his wife.

“Stanley, can you give Stan Jr. back to Melody, I need some help here” Ford said from the car, trying to grab a huge coffin.

“Shush you grumpy man, that damn thing won’t go anywhere” Stan said back, giving his brother a stern glance.

“You really don’t know anything about the gnomes, don’t you?” Ford inquired. Stan rolled his eyes and sighed with disenchantment.

“That’s why I’m the funny brother, seriously”

A few hours later, when the whole baggage was set in place, the family was on the kitchen, sharing stories about how they were doing in the grunkles absence with Stan, as Ford was checking the accumulated mail. Soos and Melody were eating in the kitchen desk, more for habit than anything else, as Stan had the whole table for him, as he had already ended his own plate of Stan-cakes (with no hair this time), recharged over the chair with his feet over the table and a coffee cup in his right hand, sipping every often. 

“… then we’re thinking in moving, for the sake of Soos’s arms” Melody reassured, pointing at Soos burning marks over his arms. “Those scampfires are getting really annoying”

“Hah! You’re not the only one with a taste for Soos, Mels” Stan yelled in response, sipping his cup.

“Well, who can resist this sweet sweet man?” Melody replied, recharging her head over Soos’s shoulder, as he embranced her and gave her a fast kiss.

“I’m the perfect man, sweetheart. That’s why we’re moving to town the next month; We don’t want to risk to a fire in the shack”

“Do whatever you need to do Soos. I’m very proud of you, you got a loving wife and a child; I’m still remembering how Dipper and Mabel’s parents got together, Aaron looked as if he was going to explode the day of the wedding” Stan said, remembering with fondness those good times.

“How did they meet?” Melody asked with curiosity.

“They told me that they were at a hunting club or something and Ann accidentally shot him, she tells it better. You had to see Dad’s reaction for their engagement; in those times he and Shermy were still being very old fashioned. They made a dinner to try to drop the bomb better but Dad was always so pushy! I had to intervene to help them” Stan said, recalling the day in his mind. “And look at them now! They did it great if you allow me to say”

“Wow, that’s fair more delicate than I thought” Melody replied.

“That’s right, Mels. We’re full soap-opera material… Hmm, think in the profits” Stan said, thinking in the possibilities of sell the story for TV, when Ford, who had been giving rounds out on the corridor, suddenly stopped with an opened letter over the rest of the bunch between his hands.

“Hey Stanley!” Ford exclaimed enthusiastically “look at this. It’s a letter from Dipper and Mabel”

“Heh, a letter? Couldn’t they be more oldfangled?” Stan replied with humor, as he took a sip of his cup.

“Hmm interesting. They’re inviting us to a dinner at their house in Piedmont, it says they have something important to announce…”

Maybe it was coincidence, or the profitably though rail he was already having that moment, but Stan caught instantly what the letter meant to say. He sputtered his coffee at the moment in the most exaggerated way, and jumped out of the table, taking the letter straight from Ford’s hands.

“Give me that!” Stan yelled, as he took the letter.

“What the heck Stan…!”

“Hush!” Stan interrupted, as his eyes rolled at the text of the letter, word by word. Then, once finished the letter, he raised his head, not sure what to feel about his horrid conclusion. “Son of a bi-” Stan tried to say, before to let the letter to fall from his hands, at the time he fell over the ground too…


	3. The Plan Sets in Motion

“…Stanley? Stanley?” Stan heard around him. He had not yet, the enough forces to stand up, but he could now hear his surroundings.

“Should we call the doctor?” He heard from Melody’s voice.

“Don’t worry, this happens more often than it looks. I remember when we found that golden head in Fiji and…”

_Sure Ford, let me here to die as you talk about the Golden Tikki, how good brother._

“… but I’m not sure why this happened with the letter, it doesn’t say anything to put him like this” He heard how Ford inquired.

_Seriously Ford? Why you don’t get it?!_

“You idiot!!” Stan yelled, raising from the couch in a sudden movement. He looked around him, finding himself sit over the couch on the living room, aside the water tank.

“Mr. Pines! Are you ok?” Soos asked with enthusiasm and concern, but not trying to hug him; Stan was particularly cranky when he was incommoded in such way, and Soos inquired for himself that maybe he had discovered something not fitting with the idea of hug someone.

“Stanley, what happened?” Ford asked, approaching to him. Stan looked at them, as he sat more comfortably. He was sure he wasn’t going to be believed, nor he could believe it for himself. But he knew his family, and how to read between words; for him, the math were clear. Stan sighed, and recharging his arms over his knees, took another deep breath.

“Maybe you want to take a sit, this is going to be hard to be heard…”

\- Zimmerman Residence. Piedmont, California; a few days ago (at midnight)…

The room was dark, the window opened, and the moonlight impregnating him like a coat of darkness. Around there was a salt circle, and in front of him there was a needle and a candle, just as the ritual indicated. That particular night the weather was particularly cold, so it wasn’t an experience he could be enjoy, less being naked and sit over the floor, just as the ritual indicated. Except of course, for a white towel above him that covered the enough so both summoned and summoned could avoid the impending awkwardness.

_Seriously man, can’t you skype me or something?_

Aiden turned the candle on with a matchstick of the box he had aside him, and put it in front of him. Then, proceeded to the least pleasant part of the ritual: puncture his finger with the needle and put the needle’s tip inside the flare of the candle. The brief smell of his own blood burning got his nose, so he knew that it was safe to proceed with the final stage. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and recited the incarnation.

“Dv iurp wkh Juhdw Zlwfkhv lv wkh Eodfn Lurq, dqg iurp qdphohvv ehdvwv lwv dqflhqw eorrg… Ohw wkh surplvh zklfk zlwk wlph L'yh vljqhg wr eh hwhuqdo dv lw zdv zulwwhq!!”

His eyes opened wide, being shinny as lanterns, and the salt over the floor flew around him like a crystalline tornado. The room shook, and the moonlight became crooked around him, as black, tarnished veins sprout in middle air, and what looked like fingertips opened a wide scar in the space itself as an eye opening.

Greyish skinned, frightful, of dead white eyes, and brunette dusty hair, the young man of long grey cape fell over the floor like a sac filled with rocks. His stone rod put its tip over the wooden floor, and raised him slowly and intimidating as he approached to Aiden. Aiden’s eyes came back to normal, and after a pair of fast blinks, he looked at the being he had invocated.

“Don’t take me bad bro, but two naked dudes in a dark room isn’t precisely my idea of summon a demon” Aiden said, still sit on the floor.

“I am not a demon… And sorry for the other part, my Master was teaching me Basic Summoning at the time The Shifts were broken” The greyish young man spoke, rubbing his nap with his free hand.

“I get it I get it, but why are you naked?…” Aiden asked, turning away from him with dissimulated disgust.

“I wear my cape, Aiden” The young man replied with stern annoy.

“You… You didn’t clasp it right” Aiden said, still avoiding seeing him. The young man looked below his chest, and joined his cape’s edges together in a hurried movement. Sometimes it was just too difficult to remember all the indumentary rules of a society in which he hadn’t lived for centuries. “Please, why don’t you get some pants…?”

“Did you summon me for something? Remember I can’t stay too much in the universe” the young man replied. Again, he evaded the question, much for Aiden’s strangeness. But he was right, so Aiden took a brief sigh, scratched his neck, and proceeded to tell him.

“Oh right, this is the deal: Dipper and Mabel want to talk with their parents about their relationship, so I told Dipper ‘_Man, this is going to blow up in your faces_’ and then Dipper said ‘_We have to try it’_ and… Ehh, he said Mabel has been having dreams” Aiden said, passing a hand over his face as a variety or expressions of concern passed in the young man’s face. That last part caught his attention, as he closed his face to hear him better.

“…Dreams about what?” The young man asked.

“About… about all the times things went messed up with their parents, basically” Aiden answered. “You told me those memories couldn’t be accessed; why is she having those dreams?”. The young man looked away at the window, and took a deep breath.

“This moment of Time is important, I feel it. I can’t know how things were before I came to existence, but my Master told me that this age was a key for history. You had already seen some of those events. The shooting stars, the awakening of the Titans, the social convulsions. All of that is tampering with the destiny of this world. This is a weak spot”

“Sooo… Mabel’s having dreams about the Shifts because we live in a weak spot of the universe?”

“That, or something’s trying to force its entrance inside this dimension. Of course” the young man said, gasping a laugh “but that’s impossible. I’ve been guarding for a long time, no beast or demon had reached the edges without suffer my blow” he said with pride.

“Is that common or something?” Aiden asked, not feeling too safe by having an opened entrance to the wasteland between realities inside his own room.

“The light of the rebirth of this reality was seen from every corner of the known multiverse. Many things had come to see, and not all of them are friendly. I’ve spent whole ages fighting restless, as you may know”

“So you never let something get in? Can you be sure?” Aiden asked. The young man turned to face him with a humble smile, as if he was remembering something.

“My Master taught me to never think in absolutes. That’s why you can remember. I knew you were someone I could trust to take care of them in such cases, and I thank you for that”. This time, was Aiden who looked away in seemed defeat.

“But I can’t even prevent them from come out with their parents, how…. Eeehh. I mean – What I tell their parents?” Aiden began to ask himself, facing the young man again.

“I feel you won’t have any trouble with that. If I know Mom as I know her, she’ll bring order from disaster” the young man replied in a warm tone. “Feel a little more of confidence Aiden. Think about it; you took this mantle even before you know I choose you for that, and you had done a very good work. If there’s any trouble with something you can’t handle, the only you need is salt and fire”

“Yeah… But please, try to find out a way so I haven’t to be… you know… _too_exposed”

“Hah, I’ll try” The young man inquired.

“You got a pair of crazily lovable parents you know?” Aiden asked him with a more relieved expression. But the young man’s eyes rolled away as his smile disappeared.

“Yeah, I know” He said, turning back to return from where he came.

“Hey – You.. you can always consider to go back. I mean – You look alone” Aiden tried to reassure. The young man stopped his walk, and turned his head a little.

“I fear I wouldn’t have anything for me here if I do it. But I thank you” The young man said with low voice. “Good luck, Aiden” He said a last time.

“Good luck, Connor” Aiden said back.

The young man walked inside the rotten entrance, and this sealed itself behind him. Again, Aiden was alone in the dark room, with nothing to cover him except for a towel.

“Oh man, I’m going crazy” Aiden told to himself…

\- The Mystery Shack; Gravity Falls, Oregon. The same few days after…

“Stanley, are you going crazy?” Ford asked in disgusted disbelief. Stan just limited to follow his endless pace across the living room with his eyes, as Melody and Soos exchanged silent expressions of concern.

“Can’t you try to not make a hole in the floor as I talk about this? This is important” Stan said with stern skepticism.

“It’s just that – Are you serious with a thing like that? How can you ever thing that they’ll engage in… _Something_ like that? Most probably they’re just going to announce their college proposals and you suggest _that_!” Ford asked, still walking around.

“It’s January, Ford; who does that?” Stan said, leaving Ford to his own plot hole in an unsettling moment of silence. “Look, I get you lasted the last 30 years with the head inside whatever-weird-dimension you could find, But I stayed here. I know our family, and I know them. And know what they’re talking about in the letter”

“Ok, and why of aaaaall the possible interpretations you got _that_ one?” Ford asked, still disgusted. Stan smiled; Ford could be very intelligent, but he was still an awful liar.

“You know what Sixer? You’re the enough clever to figure it out too; that’s why you’re walking around like a stray dog” Stan pointed with irony. Suddenly, Ford stopped where he was, not facing his brother, neither Soos nor Melody. He had been given the whole explanation about why Stan figured out the meaning of the letter, and despite his disgust, he couldn’t find a single opposition to that idea.

_It can’t be. It really can’t be. Dipper’s a very intelligent young, how could be do something like that? Or maybe he has a… darker side I don’t know about? How Mabel could accept to… Maybe he isn’t the boy I knew anymore…_

Rage, awe, disappointment, sadness; all the faces Ford had in those uncomfortable moments of silence. Stan figured out the tirade of ideas Ford was having, and he couldn’t feel more frustrated for that. He recharged his elbows over his knees, and buried his face on his hands in a loud groan.

“Hehe, Aaron’s gonna be his own father in-law” Soos interrupted, smiling with irony.

“What?” Melody asked, evidencing her discerning posture with a sudden movement. But Soos turned to face her with a warm glance.

“Mels, we met thanks to them. They spent a whole bunch of time training me to be the enough brave to talk to a girl. They gave me an all-powerful time wish just because they wanted me to be happy, and all I got for them was a fast cleanse and a day in laser tag. We fought monsters and crazy robots, even our own weridmaggedon. You, me, Stan Jr, all of us are here for them. If they found out their own weird way to be happy and they need help with that, I’ll be willing to listen”.

Melody turned away for a moment; in all those years she had never stopped to think in that sudden wave of fortune she had that summer. She had met that wonderful and lovable man, built a home, and got a work in a fantastic place. And, she had to admit, she hated every moment she lived in Portland, so she couldn’t be more thankful for the fact of not having to live there with her parents anymore. And then, she remembered all the happiness that followed; their wedding, Stan Jr, and the lovely family that came along Soos. Not to mention how helpful the twins where the last summer, when her health was delicate, and the sudden income of people due the growing popularity of monsters since San Francisco let him unable to handle attend the Shack for himself.

They had come to bless her life in a way she could never find the right words to thank them, and now it was her turn to give something back.

“Me too” She said with enthusiasm, holding her husband’s chubby hands.

“You can’t be serious” Ford said with a dismissive glance.

“They did so much for us; if they need help we’ll give it” Melody said with determination, turning to see Ford. “It’s not the first time that what I was thought was wrong”

“You see? They get it” Stan said, pointing at them with his hands. Ford passed his hands across his face in despair, when he suddenly stopped to see his hand. Six fingers. Not what one should expect, nor what could fit in society (literally, he had to make personally crafted gloves, several times). A great part of his life he had gone in a quest to find a place where odd things like him, a place where he hadn’t to feel like a freak… Then he thought, for first time in his entire life with dealing with the strange, that maybe he was not the only one living the same quest and that said other ones had to deal with even worse adversities than just an extra finger and a high intelligence. Other ones like their grand nephews. How that happened, and how true that was, were things he couldn’t trust now, but he was sure he could do something for them.

Ford’s defeat face said everything. It was shocking as it should be, but how many things all those years weren’t?

“Give me a piece paper, I’ll write the response letter” Ford said in low tone…

\- Pines Residence; Piedmont, California. Other set of few days later…

Saturday’s mail came early, as it was planned. And, according to said plan, Mabel spent a while in the chilling morning of February waiting along Waddles aside the rusty mailbox. As usual, he got asleep, as Mabel awaited recharged over the mailbox in a gangster-like nonchalant style. Her pinkish comrade arose his head, and she knew the mail truck was approaching.

Inside, Dipper was preparing the breakfast, as the plan had settled. He was not so bad cooking, but it wasn’t his usual Saturday role. However, it was still a good distraction for their parents. Aaron came first from the corridor, with his pajama pants and his white armless shirt, as it was usual. His sleepy aims ceased at the moment he smelled the coffee and the eggs, and his eyes opened wide to see in slight disbelief how his son was preparing the breakfast.

“Ok, that’s a surprise” Aaron said. “What are you doing so early here down?”

“Good morning, Dad. I decided to make the breakfast today; you know, soon I won’t have no one to do it for me” Dipper answered, serving the eggs over the plates. Think that this was the last months of their children at home before to finally go to college was not exactly a pleasant thing to him, but he recognized how much they had made efforts to get the best possible grades so they shouldn’t have to worry. Mabel had already a settled scholarship proposal for her art projects, so Dipper was the only left to begin to settle a place. Soon, they should begin to look for a place, so that scarce moments in which they all could seat and eat in peace meant gold for him. Aaron smiled as much as his still tired brain allowed him to do, as he scratched an eye.

“Heh. I thank the gesture, but I don’t think the girls are going to wake up so –“

“Hi Dad!, Bye Dad!” Mabel suddenly appeared thru the front door, accompanied by a galloping Waddles, as she practically threw the mail over the kitchen table and went running thru the stairs with something in her hand, too fast to be seen.

“ – early?” Aaron finished to say, grabbing the mail. He was barely lifting the bunch of mail when Dipper went running thru the stairs as well in a hurried expression.

“We’ll down on a sec, awake Mom!” Dipper said, as he disappeared from sight. Aaron looked at the complete family breakfast, practically marooned in place, and then looked at the corridor. Whatever they were doing, was very clumsy, or was trying to drive his attention out of something. And they were being awful trying it.

“…. Hold on, what’s going on?” Aaron said to himself.


	4. Let It Go

\- Mystery Shack; Gravity Falls, Oregon. The day before the dinner; early in the morning…

_Laser gun? Check. Memory gun? Check. The Brief Compendium to Ice-Breaking Awkward Rescue for Dummies? Check. Hmm, I’m still forgetting something…_

“How much stuff fits in that coat?” Stan interrupted Ford, coming from his room’s door.

“The enough for this mission, I hope” Ford replied, turning to face is brother.

“Mission?” Stan asked. “It’s a family dinner, not a world-ending threat”

“Depends on where you are standing” Ford replied. “You’ve been there in the moments you said were hard for the family. Do you believe I’m taking too many precautions?”. Stan opened his mouth as he raised his hand for a moment, to just after dismiss whatever he was about to say.

“Bring me another of those laser guns, just in case” Stan suggested.

“Heh, I just have that one, But I’ll see what I can do” Ford said, trying to be comical.

“Why did you remake the memory gun?” Stan said, turning suddenly serious. Ford remained silent for a moment, trying to think in something that could drive the attention out of that fact, but the silence didn’t more than just extend beyond his ability to convince Stan that he wasn’t planning to do what he was planning to do. “Give me” Stan said with even more serious tone, extending his hand. Ford kept silent, but didn’t brought the gun out of his jacket.

“Is the best – “

“Are you saying it for real Ford? We talked about this, and we agreed to help them, not to try to fix the things in our, or your way” Stan said with growing anger.

“How can you know they’re not – you know -…”

“What? Being a pair of goddamn perverts? That’s what you’re worried about? Are you kidding me?” Stan said, almost yelling.

“People makes mistakes Stanley –“

“How can you know it?!…” Stan yelled at last, taking the palm of his hand over his mouth “You saw what that thing did with McGucket, and are you trying to make the same with them?”

“What do you care something like that as you care anyway?” Ford told him, taking the chance to raise his voice as well.

“I can ask the same to you” Stan said, darting his eyes. Ford’s breaths became heavier, and in an act of bitterness, he took the memory gun out of his jacket and extended to Stan.

“You know what? Take it, take it and watch how all their lives fall apart!” Ford yelled, frowning in fury. Stan put his hand over the weapon, still on Ford’s hand, but against Ford’s angry thoughts, Stan didn’t take it. Instead, he pushed the weapon to Ford’s direction, looking him directly at the eyes. Stan’s determination slowly melted away Ford’s frustration. How many times he had to learn the same lessons? At least for Stan, he didn’t give a heck to pass thru that as many times his brother needed it.

The fading anger in Ford’s face finally disappeared, revealing his true feelings towards the situation. Worry, fear, frustration,… disappointment, the kind of disappointment he wasn’t even sure towards who he was feeling it. Stan drew a weak smile of pride towards his brother. The Ford was just learning, Stan had been learning it over and over again the last 50 years.

“I was the smart twin this time, wasn’t I?” Stan said with pride.

“I love those children. If something happens to them and I do nothing what I can do, then…”

“To know how we can help we have to know what’s the matter, don’t we?”. Ford smiled in defeat, and both arms lowered.

“Don’t get used to be the smart twin” Ford said, putting the memory gun inside the jacket again. “You still owe me a spear gun since the incident in Norway”

“We got the gold Sixer, we got the gold” Stan reminded him. “Let’s get outta here, it’s like a zillion-hours trip to California”

“We can take turns” Ford suggested, as the grunkles walked downstairs to the main room.

“No way I can let you drive the Stanley-Moville in a long trip with a baby” Stan denied him with a gasping laugh, as they got out from the shack. Barely they walked throught the door, and Soos and Melody were out, walking from a short distance to them.

“Hey! You came earlier” Stan pointed.

“Yep, we convinced Abuelita to take care of Stan Jr as we go on the trip, long trips are not good for babies” Soos pointed with a gesture of proud father skills.

”Oh, hush you daddy” Melody appointed, embracing his arm with hers.

Something, Ford didn’t recognized very well, scratched at the bottom of his mind. Something was not going… as it had. But he quickly dismissed it, not even expressing it.

“Well merry couple, let’s take a trip to California!” Stan appointed.

So the four got inside the car, directly to their destiny, disappearing in the road to the highway.

But something was happening beneath the reach of their attention. Looking between the woods, a _something _was waiting for them to leave. It’s goat-like legs hit the floor with awe, and its glass-like tentacles waved at the air. The moment of the _something_ had come…


	5. The Ruining Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The night has come, along something else...

Pines Residence; Piedmont, California. The night of the dinner…

_Well, sh*t. Holly f**king sh*t I can believe I’m doing this how the heckity f**k I’m doing this why why why why…_

Life had put Aiden Zimmerman into many marking things. A weird girl who made him pass through an entire Emotional Trip of friendship-to-love-to-hate-to-compassion-to-friendship-again; meet his parallel self, the Doctor of War; live the entire rebirth of the Universe and being the only man aware of how close trillions of lives were at the brink of utter annihilation. But nothing of that, not even Cassie or almost fall into the Time Vortex, nor even the frightening monsters, were making his guts to spin in the way they were making him to do it in the moment he pressed the door’s ring bell. What that had to say about his nerve? For the moment, one could conclude only good things. His hand was holding the bouquet of flowers grew tight, as he breathed hard. Begonias, gladiolus and ferns, that was an Aiden Zimmerman-level despair.

_Here ya go. You can do this you can do this you can –_

The door opened, and the first thing Aiden glimpsed was Ann Pines’ confused glance.

_Oh my freaking gosh, I can’t do this._

“Aiden?” Ann asked in confusion. But said confusion seemed to be not-so new for her; her expression was more like a ‘_And now what happened?_’-like expression.

_Dammit Mabel, why did you teach me how to read faces?!_

“Mrs. Pines!! Hi!” Aiden shouted in near-hysteric enthusiasm. Ann took a brief look of his appearance, trying to figure what else the night had for them. His attires weren’t the enough formal for a great-news dinner, but not the enough casual for her to think he wasn’t involved. A blue jacket, an orange shirt beneath, and blue pants matching with his jacket. For short, the usual Aiden. The why of the bouquet was something Ann had no clue for puzzle, and her good desires for such situation didn’t matched for any possible explanation

_Oh right Ann, you completely lost it._

“Hi Aiden. I have to guess that you weeeeere invited too?” Ann asked.

“Yep, I was” Aiden replied in a hurry.

“Ooooh right. Then pass; the food’s ready” Ann replied, returning to her usual friendly behavior, and let him come in. She could have asked him about what-the-heck was happening in her house, but she concluded that Aiden was going to be so cryptical about it as much as the Grunkles, Soos and Melody were; whatsoever the nature of said news could be.

Aiden made his best effort to not practically run towards the dining room, and barely had he entered, he met with the confused glance of Aaron, the twin’s half-relieve-half-terror expressions, the slightly amused glance of Grunkle Stan, and the monotonous smiles of two people he had never met, but judging for Mabel’s stories, he knew they were Soos and Melody.

“Hey theeeeere Pines Family” Aiden saluted, the most casual possible.

“Aiden, you came” Mabel replied with much more controlled aims, something that gave Aiden a little of relief, for some strange reason.

“Let me put the bouquet in the jar, go back on a sec” Dipper said, standing and taking the bouquet. As he lost of sight and Ann came to sit in her place aside her husband, Aiden sit in which he presumed was his place; along Mabel. Grunkle Ford appeared from some place, and sit along his twin, he as well giving Aiden a confused glance.

_Oh please, swallow me Earth!_

“I’m… glad, to you join us to dinner” Ann said as she seated, finding those words as the only excuse to the prolonged silence she had planned to make as she disposed to eat. She and Aaron exchanged glances of even more confusion in a way the almost seemed to be telepathically sharing ‘_what’s going on’_s. A bowl of hot pasta, a glass topper filled in hot juicy steaks, two big bottles of soda, a jar of milk, and a basket case filled in donuts, was all that separated the participants of the dinner. Undeniably, all of that seemed utterly delicious, and for a moment, Aiden forgot his absolute fear in favor of please his growing appetite.

“Take as you want, Aiden-raven; you’ll love Dipper’s pasta” Mabel appointed. So Aiden proceeded to serve himself in a slow but undeniably hungry pace.

_Hmm, this is not so wrong, I like their work…_

“Hmm” Stan began to say, pointing at Aiden with his fork as he kept munching “ aren’t you Mabel’s ex?”

_Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t, sh*t!!!!…._

“Yep, he is. But we’re friends again!” Mabel exclaimed for him, embracing his shoulders and squishing them in a friendly way. “Yes, just as in the nineties’ way. Totally nineties!” Mabel kept saying. Her confidence was contagious, as Aiden could feel for himself, and he smiled at her in a warm way.

_Mabel Pines, you’re too good for this world_

“Hmm, that sounds like a very important improvement in diplomacy. I guess Dipper wasn’t fully right when he said it was good for me to lose the nineties” Ford said, enrolling his fork with pasta. Aaron seemed immediately distressed by that comment, passing his hand across his forehead and frowning with certain unconfortability. Mabel had not been very specific when she told him how the family received Ford, but it was obvious that was not a short way. Soon it was obvious for Aiden the why of the presence of the Grunkles: They were the providers of every teasing comment they could need.

“Pfff! Don’t make case to Dipper, he’s just soo old fashioned” Mabel replied.

“Hey! I heard you” Dipper interrupted, coming from the kitchen. He sat along her sister, as he took his plate and served food for himself. It was too brief to be noticed by anyone else, but in the moment Mabel made another comment to drive the attention out of him, Dipper – aware Aiden was looking at him – rolled his eyes the enough fast and clear so Aiden got aware he had to look at his plate. Along him, under his glass cup, there was a little piece of paper. Aiden took the chance of the laugh everyone in the table made, not being aware what exactly Mabel said, to take the little piece of paper. He took the paper and unfolded it. It read _‘20 MIN’_.

_F********ck!_

Aiden instantly got it. In approximately 20 minutes, they were going to drop the bomb. He looked at his plate again. Now, what it looked like a delicious Saturday feast, now looked more like a last dinner.

_Oh my gosh I have to run!!… No! You can do this! Dipper and Mabel trust you… for whatever they planned to have me here!_

So the dinner passed, minute by minute. For a moment the twins’ parents focused in Aiden, asking for his college appliances, and other the Grunkles told their stories of their adventures. Mabel talked about her proposal of scholarship, and Dipper in other academic matters not so impressive but equally time-filling. Surprisingly, Soos and Melody weren’t as talkative as they should be, only giving brief anecdotes of the life in Gravity Falls and the twins when the chance was given. Aside that, the roles in the table seemed like a well-planned conversational dance. The twins’ parents provided the logic questions, the grunkles the uncomfortable comments, the twins themselves the chill relief, and Aiden… He felt sort of a keystone for the fluidity of conversation. For a moment, Aiden felt hope. Maybe the plan could work.

“… And then I dragged him for three miles until we reached the Dean. He couldn’t stop of laugh and I couldn’t stop of feel panicked. Gosh I was dying of embarrassment and he was mocking the entire accident” Ann kept saying. Mabel looked at her story with warm relief, as Stan made the brief laugh.

“Honey, it was just so ironical, I couldn’t resist. Besides, I had a hole in my leg and you were panicking, I thought it appropriate” Aaron replied, raising his hands with the argument.

“Well, when you just shoot the hot new guy of the hunting club the last thing you thing is to laugh” Ann said back with stern humor.

“Mooom!” Mabel said with brief disgust.

“Believe it or not Mabel, your father was pretty handsome in his times…”

“… Was?” Aaron inquired, looking at her wife with a darting smile.

“It’s a biographic inquiring Aaron, not to be taken seriously” Ann defended herself, crossing her arms.

“Well, I can agree with Ann, he _was_” Grunkle Stan appointed, pointing at him with his fork in middle of a short laugh.

“How supportive, Uncle Stan” Aaron replied in fake remorse.

For a moment, the twins’ parents had forgotten his doubts about why they were all of them there; for a moment, it was just the family enjoying together of a lovely night. But then Dipper looked at his cellphone, and with painful glance, he made himself and Mabel aware, that soon they were going to meet a very different side of their parents…

“Hang on a sec, I’ll attend a call” Stan interrupted, standing from the table and taking his cellphone.

“Who could be calling you at this time?” Ford asked.

“Hey!, I got my admirers” Stan replied, and walked towards the kitchen to attend the call.

Dipper and Mabel looked each other a last time, agreeing that this particular moment of incoming disorder was exactly they had been awaiting for. No matter how that could end, they tried. For a moment they looked at Aiden, and he nodded in silent support. Then, they drove their attention to the table’s occupants.

Four clings distracted everyone from the conversation, as they put eyes on Dipper. His jitters were obvious, but he was trying his best to hide them.

“Oh right, here we go” Dipper said. “I guess you have been asking yourselves why we did all of this” He said, directing his words to his parents “and the truth is that me and Mabel have some very important to tell you…”

-

_“What’s up Mr. Pines! How’s all going?”_ Stan heard, with unbearable confusion, his handyman’s voice coming from the phone.

_“_…Soos?!” Stan shouted in confussion.

_“I know I know, I hadn’t to call until tomorrow, but I and Melody were feeling a little worried about how the thing was going on there…”_ Soos began to say, as from the phone Stan could hear the well-known laughs of the little Stan Jr.

“Wait, but you’re here with us, how…” Stan asked…

-

“We made this little dinner to give you a little of relief before tell you about” Dipper said, extending his hands at the table.

“And, the reason Aiden’s here is because he had been helping us with that the whole time, and we thought it was right to have him here when we tell you. And, well” Mabel said, interrupting herself with a brief laugh “in some way the dinner’s for him too. We owe him so much after all the mess we made him pass through” 

“It was delicious” Aiden appointed, raising a thumb for a moment. Their parents passed from the simple curiosity and expectation, to serious glances of concern.

“What is happening?” Aaron asked in concern.

“It’s everything ok, sweetie? You know you two can count on us for everything” Ann said as well, jointing her hands together.

“Well, it’s not like you can do anything for it” Mabel said “but…”

-

_“Mr Pines, but you told us to stay in Gravity Falls, that you needed to fix it as a family…” _Stan heard Soos saying

“Soos, we never did that. When you tell we told you that?” Stan asked, feeling the incoming disaster.

_“You… you called us yesterday in the morning –”_ Soos said.

“Hold on a sec Soos. If you two are there, who are the ones who are…?”

-

“…But?” Aaron asked, feeling too much the brief silence Mabel made.

“Well, it’s delicate. The thing is… is…” Mabel tried to say, not being able to say it. Some part of her wasn’t willing to hear, whatever they parents could say against. It was Dipper’s signal to act.

“Mabel and I are in love!” Dipper exclaimed in a sudden movement, standing in front of the table.

For a moment, the silence reigned supreme, all the eyes put on Dipper. Now the concern of their parents turned into painful bewilderment mixed with dots of anger, and a big spoon of shock. Mabel stood as well, taking his brother’s hand, tangling their fingers together. The silence prolonged itself another couple of seconds, until it broke down abruptly.

“…What?” Aaron said, trying to figure if he heard right despite the immediate action of Mabel wasn’t leaving anything to the free interpretation.

“What Dipper said.. We… we are in love” Mabel said, forcing herself to not look away; she couldn’t allow herself to look away and show the lest interpretable sign of fear.

“…Oh my gosh… F**k” Ann said with low voice, recharging over her chair.

_Wait a moment…_

Aiden looked at Soos and Melody for a moment in the time it took to the Pines parents to process the new, feeling an upsetting feeling, a feeling he hadn’t felt since… The Never Castle.

_What the…?_

They weren’t moving at all, like mannequins posing in hysteric amusement.

“Ehm, guys..” Aiden tried to drive their attention.

“How long?” Aaron said in a serene but angry tone.

“Well, that’s the..” Dipper tried to tell.

“How long?!” Aaron yelled, standing from the table in an infuriated tension. “You are going to tell me right now _how_ long _this_ has been happening in _my_ house– ”

“Aaron I think you –“ Ford tried to say.

“Shut up Ford!” Aaron interrupted him.

“Dad we need you…” Mabel tried to say as well.

“Shut up!” Aaron yelled, infuriated.

“Dad we want to explain –“ Dipper made his attempt.

“Explain what? You made it perfectly _clear_.” Aaron said furious. 

The moment had come, just as they planned it, with the response they had anticipaed, but still, after all the plan, they weren’t ready. After all, they hadn’t the chance, so the only they could do was to face their worst fear, and endure. 

“You are going to leave this house now, in this precise moment, or I swear I gonna –“

“Everyone stay away from the table!!” Stan interrupted, coming fast from the kitchen.

Silence came for a moment, as everyone in the table looked at Stan, to just after look where he was pointing. All of them looked at Soos and Melody, who were frozen in place in a very frightening way. Something was going wrong in a way not even the twins had anticipated.

‘Soos’ and ‘Melody’ looked each other, not abandoning their static smiles, and with no warning, ‘Soos’ stood and took ‘Melody’, lifted ‘her’ in the air as if she was a piece of polystyrene, and launched her towards Ann.

In the single second it took it to hit Ann, ‘Melody’ stopped of being Melody.

“AAAHH!” Ann screamed, as the winged beast fell over her, her falling chair making Aaron to fall over the floor. Over her stomach there were two hoofed goat-like legs with razor-sharp retractile claws like a velociraptor. The glass-like body of the beast had an undiscernible amount of tentacles with hairy borders, waving with madness. Two fish-like wings waved crazily, as the creature shrilled pitchy over Ann’s terrified body…

_Ptzz ptzz!!_

Two fast shoots coming from Ford’s laser gun, and the creature was launched towards the wall of the dining room, as its body fade away as melted foam, not leaving a trace behind its decomposing body.

Aaron crawled towards his terrified wife and helped her to rise from the floor, as everyone stood in frightened shock. But the shock bubble ended as soon as it began, when ‘Soos’ squealed in an animalistic way and jumped over the table. His fattish legs melted in goat-like hooves, his arms into wings, and his head into a maw of tentacles. The creature looked at the terrified gests with its mockeries of eyes over its tentacles, and stood quiet for a moment.

“Holy sh-“ Aiden tried to swear, when the beast shrilled wildly and aloud, extending its wings and jumping over the table towards them.

“Ruuun!” Dipper yelled, and the family dispersed. Aiden ran towards the door, followed by the rest of the guests, when at the mere touch of his hand with the door’s latch launched him towards Dipper’s arms.

“What the – “Aiden yelled.

“Oh no it’s a Time Cocoon! Quickly, to the living room!” Ford yelled, when another beast appeared flying and dragged him away.

“Grunkle Ford!” Mabel yelled, going in his direction, when she reached his feet between her hands, and the rest of them took his feet as well. The beast flapped furiously, until it gave up and let Ford go, him falling to the floor.

They remained at the house’s entrance, as they heard things being crashed against everywhere in the rest of the house.

“Wha-… what is happening?” Aaron said to himself, giving a few steps behind, taking his head with his hands. “Is this a dream? Yeah this is a dream…”

“Dad this isn’t a dream, you need to calm down” Dipper said, approaching to him. He looked at him, and lowered his arms.

“Sure! Calm down will resolve everything, it won’t?” Aaron replied with angry irony. For a moment, his mind was crashed between what happened a few moments and the monster. For a moment, it was just too much for a man to handle.

“Honey, look at me” Ann said, approaching to him “We’re here, all safe, I know you’re afraid, but I need you to look at me right?” she said, taking his shoulders. “Inhale… exhale…” inhale…” She began to instruct.

“Ok, ok…” Aaron said, following her instructions.

“Better?” She asked him, Aaron nodding in silent approval.

“Wow, how you did that?” Mabel asked in slight surprise.

“Marriage’s a tag team, Honey. Also, being attacked by a cougar and work in a crowded office have their advantages, I guess” She said, giving a deep kiss in his husband’s forehead and caressing his cheek, to just after let him and turn to face her family and Aiden. “Oh right, I have to settle that we’ll leave the_ other_ topic to a better moment until we deal with the monster. Ford, I think you know what is happening”

“Mom… are you ok?” Dipper asked, intrigued with so much seriousness coming from her.

“Dipper, I’m processing a lot of information this precise moment, SO please don’t, not for now” She asserted.

“Ok” Dipper replied in soft voice.

“Good. Now Ford, I have to guess this has nothing to do with Godzilla, doesn’t it?” Ann asked.

“It’s a Memomorph. I’ve seen them before, back in my travels” Ford began to say.

“It’s… like the Shapeshifter?” Dipper asked.

“No. His species needs to see the beings to transform into them; a memomorph can take the shapes directly from the memories of their preys”

“How it does that?” Mabel asked.

“It anchors itself to the mind of its prey to keep the form until it can remember it for itself. It must have anchored itself to Stan’s mind to take Soos and Melody’s shapes, it’s an unnoticeable process unless you try to resist it”

“Why not your mind?” Ann asked with certain suspicious.

“I have a metal plate in my head, I’m mind-reading proof” He said in a merry tone, clinging his head with his fist.

“… But we can stop it, right? It isn’t undefeatable” Dipper asked, looking at Ford with a hopeful expression.

“In this part of its hunting he made a Time Cocoon. That means we can’t leave, but neither it. We need to kill it to break the Time Cocoon, but we’ll have to destroy all of its bodies to achieve it”

“All of its bodies?” Aaron asked, not pleasant with the idea of more of those things.

“That’s how they reproduce. They take as many shapes as they can until it can remember all of them for itself and then it gives them individual existences. The newborns are as strong as the memories of whose they spawn are in the minds of its preys. We’ll have to be strong”

“But, if we’re all together it can’t fool us, right? We’re safe” Aaron insisted.

“We’ll have to separate to corner it, it only can anchor a single mind at the time, so we have to trick it to weaken it. It will use our own fears and insecurities, so don’t be afraid. I know this is a very delicate moment for our family, but we need to focus”

“There’s no other option?” Ann asked; leave his husband and their children alone in a house with a shapeshifting monster wasn’t exactly what she expected as the climax of their family dinner. 

“If we stay together, the memomorph will kill us one by one. We have to try it”

There was a moment of quietness among the stridence of the monster turning their house upside down, when Aaron and Ann looked at their children. The will and support of their glances said everything; they were willing to fight along them. She smiled at them; maybe she wasn’t yet sure of what was going to happen with them, but for now, she was willing to listen and act.

“Well, Let the hunt begin” She said with determination, taking his husband’s hand.

“Ford, I need to know” Aiden interrupted. “That thing, where it comes from?”. Ford looked at him for a moment, recognizing that maybe he knew more than he made it look like.

“The Nightmare Realm”…


	6. Family Hunt

\- Pines Residense; Piedmont, California. Around 10 PM…

_Focus, focus, focus, focus,… f*ck!_

Aaron walked quietly over the ruins of the dinner, with a knife at hand and more questions than concerns. The table was turned on its side, spilling the food across the floor. He had already stepped on a third donut, when he reached the ‘spot’ where he should be. The only he should do now was to wait.

_Focuuuuuuus!… Da heck I can’t do this! They made all of this to announce something like _that_?! What the heck is going wrong with them… Or maybe, the one who did things wrong was me?… or… No! She didn’t anything wrong!…_

He heard the sound of crashed class being stepped on behind him and a brief whistle inside his head; the time had come.

_Clear your mind Aaron, clear your mind!…_

Aaron turned around, and he saw it. Or, better said, he saw ‘him’.

“You’re not Dipper” Aaron said with sternness. The copy was mimicking his son in the exact moment he said those words, the words who triggered his worst side.

_I was about to cast you away…_

“Mabel and I are in love!” The copy said, in the precise way, word by word, that Dipper had confessed. Aaron’s hand holding the knife trembled; the memory was just too much.

_Why did you this to us?!_

“Mabel and I are in love!” He heard exactly the same, but coming behind him.

_No no no no… Focus!_

Then he heard it, like the sound of squishing ground beef, another copy forming itself at his left, from the other side of the table, which at the moment pronounced the words.

_If this is real that means that… Why I didn’t thought it before?! Why I am thinking that now?! I – I_

He heard the sound of three more copies forming itselves, as the already existing copies walked slowly towards him, pronouncing the confession over and over again, as his despair escalated out of his control. His knife fell over the ground, and his knees yielded, making him fall over them in the floor, his left knee squishing a bunch of fallen pasta.

“Mabel and I are in love! – in love! In love! – Mabel and I are in love!…” the copies pronounced more aimed, as they figured out their final strike.

“Why! Why did you this to us!? Why did you this to me?!!” Aaron yelled, covering his ears; but the copies arose their voices as much as he tried to ignore them. “It was supposed Ann and I were going to be good parents! And look what happened!” He screamed aloud in complete impotence, the copies at bare inches from him. Impotence tears came out from his closed eyes, painfully shut.

“I’m sorry!! I’m so sorry!!!” He yelled a last time, accepting his defeat.

“Mabel and I are in love” An unseen copy said a last time, all of them cornering at scarce inches from his body.

_I’m sorry, my babies._

“You do? So what?”. His head raised in hope the moment he heard his wife’s fierce words. After all, he was not alone with this.

The copies have must felt the weakening of the memory, because all of them turned to see her, and suddenly the head of one of them exploded violently. Ann had shot it.

“The hunt begins” She said softly with a thrilled grin, as she looked at the mockeries of their son with her rifle’s eyewatch. The fake Dippers roared aloud, and ran in her direction, as Ann shot at them one by one, destroying their heads without fail a single shoot. Their glassy innards dissipated in middle air, until the last Dipper vaporized. But then she heard a whistle…

_O you don’t…._

She turned around, and caught the last glimpse of an enormous cougar just before she shot at it, making it disappear in a bluish explosion.

She was breathing hard, feeling the awe of the hunt. She closed her eyes and made a last deep breath of relief, and she let her rifle recharged over the dining room’s white frame.

“My love?” Ann said, turning around to see Aaron, standing from his position, he as well turning around to see her. She had heard everything, so she knew, even when she didn’t saw his face, that he needed a hug.

“Ann…?” He tried to say, when his wife launched herself towards him and wrapped him between her arms, him responding in the same way.

“What I was about to do?” He asked himself, recharging his head on Ann’s shoulder.

“This is not our fault ok?… This is not our fault” She responded, Letting some lonely tears to go out as well. Guilt, concern, impotence, and more fear than they could bite, it was now the messy mixture of emotions in them; but they were sure at least, that they were try to do their best, as they always had done…

\- Pines Residence (the other side of the house); Piedmont, California

_Mabel, your plan worked too good! I hope this doesn’t kill us…_

Stan was standing in middle of the laundry room with his golden mitten in a fist, watching the destroyed laundry machine and the scratched walls stained with soap. His best attempt to block painful memories was to make an account of how much they were going to pay for all the damage (and it looked like it was working). After all, they brought the monster.

“I’m getting bored, monster. Com’ on! I did a lot of things! Which you will pick? Carla? Rico? The endangered animals I smuggled? Ford? That goddamn leprechaun I launched to a bunch of sharks? That jerk deserved it and you know it” Stan said with merry amusement. At some extent, he was feeling like he was challenging the creature. “I know where you come from. How’s the wasteland eh? It has a nice weather?…” he kept saying with his accustomed aims, when he heard the whistle…

“Ford will never see me again” He heard behind it, the serious, raspy voice of a man that hadn’t been alive for a while. Stan’s eyes opened wide, and he turned around to face his most deep guilt.

“That is a low blow, man” Stan pronounced in a low and annoyed tone.

Standing in front of him was a perfect copy of his father in his last years; more appropriately, the last day he saw him using his beloved yellow suit he used for the pawn shop.

“We… We talked about that!” Stan yelled at the apparition, giving a step back.

“But you feel it anyway. You robbed him – “ the beast said as it walked slowly and morphed into his mother, using her beloved red dress “from our final days”.

“You – you aren’t real! Stop using Mom’s face or I’ll will blow it up from your gross body!” Stan yelled at ‘her’ and raised his fists, as ‘she’ kept approaching.

“I don’t need to be real; your feelings are real. It’s your fault Ford will never see your parents again, and so many people he knew and died. How much could have cost you to listen to him? He trusted you to save the world, to help him with his greatest mistake and you launched him towards The Never” his fake mother told him. “And, like a foolish rookie, you used his identity and stripped from him any legacy he could have made. You ruined his life Stan. You ruined your brother”

Stan lowered his hands, accepting the defeat.

_I’m sorry, Sixer._

“I lived other things!” They heard behind them. The beast turned around, and Stan smiled with proud.

“What?” The beast asked, facing Ford. Where he had come from, ‘she’ couldn’t know. Ford approached them step by step.

“I saw wonderful and wild worlds. I learned as much as I could ever want to learn, and dwelled in the vast abysses of Infinite. I punched a chair in the face, and I met a beautiful maid with seven eyes. And she was the one who taught me an important lesson, one you should learn”

“Which lesson?” His fake mother asked defiantly.

“Never let the smart guy talking” He said at the moment he took his laser gun and shot the beast in the belly, making it to explode.

“Nyaaaaaargh!!!!…” The beast yelled a last time as its innards vanished in the air, and Ford saw his brother’s tearful grin.

“Thank you for bring me back, brother” Ford said with a big smile. There was a moment of silence in which Stan cleaned his eye, until he went back to reality.

“Aaaaand that’s it for today! Let’s save the kids” Stan interrupted, pointing at the door of the laundry room.

\- Pines Residence (The other _other_ side of the house); Piedmont, California.

_Oh right, the monster was not in my plans, but blargh, I hope it’s useful. Gooosh why I didn’t an outdoor dinner?! Shame on you Waddles! You stayed in the backyard!_

Mabel made a few brief steps on the corridor of the second floor, as they had accorded. All the portraits were on the floor, but luckily not broken (The confidence in her plan made her ignore the fact she should be using shoes of some sort, so she was only using her fluffy pink socks). She looked around every direction, in search of any hint of the apparition of the monster, trustful in the plan they had made. It was not her first monster, and she suspected it wouldn’t be the last.

“Monstaaaaa – monsta monsta monsta” Mabel began to say quickly in a fake british accent, remaining focused in the least signal of the horrid presence. Suddenly, she heard something taking shape behind her, and turned around to see. There was Dipper, standing at her with the same clothes and expression he had that terrible morning, when he caught her kissing Aiden despite their utter expression of mutual love the last night, so long ago. Mabel frowned in anger, not because the memory hit her, but because the attempt insulted Dipper. The fake Dipepr sensed the not-useful consequence, and grinned with malice, quickly shifting… into Mabel’s shape, with all and pink socks.

“I know, I know. Is useless” The fake Mabel said. “I could try to use whatever shape you could associate to those horrid ages” she said, shifting into a more crude version of herself; she exactly as she locked that night, when she was wrapped by Dipper’s arms, all and the blanked covering her “but sadly that doesn’t work anymore! You’re such a lovely couple, you know?”

“What do you want?” Mabel said, following the monster’s pace as I waltzed around her.

“Wrong question. Is not what I want. Is what I don’t want. Have you ever wondered why I crossed around the vast abysses of Infinite just to ruin your pathetic attempt to come out with your parents?” The fake Mabel said, shifting into a grownup version of Bipper, still walking around her.

“Do you believe you have a chance? I heard the mess beneath us, you’re over” Mabel defied the creature. The fake Bipper morphed into Leigh’s shape, and stood in front of Mabel.

“Well, that could be pretty true. You just love each other too much to be useful for me… It’s a luck you’re not my prey”

A second beast, this time in its true form, crashed across Dipper’s room door with Aiden tangling in its legs, screaming in terror. The monster flew over the stairs in the single second it took Dipper come out from his hide spot and shoot the fake Leigh with the memory gun, erasing ‘her’ from existence, and both quickly ran downstairs to the kitchen.

-

“The kids!” Aaron said as he raised his head, having heard Aiden’s scream. Ann toughed her hug, burying her chin over his shoulder.

“We must stay here, sweetie, as Ford told us” Ann said to him. “You can do it, kids”

-

“The last body” Ford said, looking at the laundry room’s door.

-

_… The daleks have been tampering with Time as much as my people had done it, I don’t know who wants to save the universe and who wants to rule it anymore… Don’t worry hot boy! My silk can patch any wound… Maybe you’ll remember to drink more water, Aiden; believe me, it helps, or it was the concussion?… I’m glad to have met one of my Mom’s best friends…_

Aiden opened his eyes wide, feeling the cold ceramic of the kitchen’s floor in his right cheek. Quickly he stood over the floor, looking around everywhere.

_Oh right, this is not good._

For a second he didn’t see anyone, only the disordered kitchen; a lot of things over the floor, food stains and claws marks on the walls. But then he heard the steps coming downstairs, and suddenly Dipper and Mabel made themselves visible. Aiden rolled his eyes around, feeling they were seeing something he couldn’t, based in their frightened faces.

“Ehmm, why are you looking at me like that?” Aiden asked in a very casual form. Mabel raised her arm, very slowly, and pointed behind him. “Oh..”

Then he heard the whistle.

_Ow no no no no no no no!_

Aiden screamed, covering his ears with his hands as he fell on knees, attonished by an overpowering pain. The beast behind it disappeared as it was never been there, as blurry, flickering things began to sprout from the floor, not being able to take a definite shape, but trying their best to do it.

“Dipp-er, shoot me!!!” Aiden yelled, before to shut his eyes and groan with impotence.

“I – I – What I have to erase?!” Dipper asked, getting terrified.

“I – Grrrrr!!!!” Aiden tried to pronounce, making his best effort to not allow the beast to get inside his head. “E-Erase the whole year! Everything!!”

“What?! No!!” Mabel replied, when she saw the blurry shapes. These were making themselves clearer.

“Th-e faces!! Don’t looka t-theeeeeeeem!!!!” Aiden yelled stronger “It wil-l dmaa-ge the ftuurre!!!”

Seeing him suffer in that way was just too much for Dipper. Quickly he wrote ‘LAST YEAR’ in the memory gun and pointed at him, ready to shoot.

“Dipper no!” Ford yelled, coming from the other entrance of the kitchen. “If you erase too much you could damage his entire mind! Just like Fiddleford!!”. Dipper’s hand trembled, as the flickering shapes took clearer forms, and he tried to ignore them the most possible.

“Just-t shoot it man!!!…. I-ikn- ow you-ll take caaa-re of me; I’l-l be ookaa-yay!” Aiden yelled at him, smiling with trembley lips. But Dipper couldn’t pull the trigger. He couldn’t bear the fact of destroy the mind of the boy that had taken care of them for so long, but knowing as little as he knew about his secret, he knew the sole glances of those unknown figures could damage their future in an unimaginable level.

_This is a trap! All of this was a f*cking trap!!_

Then Dipper understood it. The dreams, their influence for their idea of the dinner, the grunkles there, the origins of the monster. All of that was part of a scheme to drag Aiden there with the monster… and force him to show his secret to the ones he should protect from.

_But then how it did…?_

Finally, an idea. Not the enough sustained, but he had to try it. He changed the words in the memory gun as fast as he could, and pulled the trigger.

_Pshtssziium!!…_

Aiden fell to the floor, as well the blurry beings, half-formed. The silence took over the house again, only quieted by the breaths of the Pines family. Suddenly, Aiden arose from the ground, rubbing his head with confussion. He looked at the grunkles, and then at the twins, with a very confussed glance.

“…Oh right guys, what’s going on here?” Aiden asked. “This is part of the plan or..”

Before he could finish the sentence, the twins moved quickly along him, each one of his sides.

“Grunkle Ford, a gun!” Mabel yelled, and Ford threw her the laser gun she took in her hand.

“Oh mine; get down, Stanley!” Ford yelled, pushing his brother to the floor. 

“Aiden close your eyes!” Dipper told him.

“Ooookay, I get what comes” He said, closing his eyes. That moment, the blurred beasts took their true forms, each one standing over a point of the kitchen, looking at the twins with their eye-filled, crooked tentacles.

“Ready?” Dipper asked, pointing at the monsters.

“Bring it on, Brother!” She exclaimed, utterly hunt-thrilled.

Dipper shot at the monster in the kitchen’s entrance, sending it to the Oblivion, and the other monsters launched themselves towards the twins.

One by one, the numerous beasts exploded like water balloons, as they launched themselves at the twins. They rolled around Aiden, still with his eyes shut, in an only maneuver of tenacity and precision. The beasts roared, flapped, and died, trying in vain to reach Aiden, until the last thing seen disappeared in middle eye, maimed and glassy.

Their breaths were hard, and their cheeks were reddened like yarn; The hunt had finished. The twins turned to see each other, filled in relieve.

“How did you?.. Aiden remembers everything” Mabel asked.

“Well, I intuited the memomorphs make their psychic link using the memories of themselves in the minds of those who see them, I just had to erase their memories from Aiden’s mind to break the link and render them vulnerable” Dipper replied, grinning nervously as he rubbed his nape.

“But those things almost..” Mabel asked.

“He had helped us a lot. I couldn’t allow him to – “ Dipper answered, getting sad at the sole idea of Aiden standing alone with a damaged mind. Mabel smiled with proud, and grabbing him by his shirt, she robbed him an intense kiss.

“Ehmm… guys? I’m too close” Aiden interrupted, making a noisy raspberry. They immediately got apart, when he smiled at them. “You crazy idiots!” He said to them, hugging each one between his strong arms. All eyes closed, and arms over arms, the three friends shared a short, but relieving hug. But then they heard a continuous grunting, and all of them opened their eyes. “What’s that?” Aiden asked.

They see a last memomorph, ready to jump at them… When his entire body was crushed to pulp by a big dripping pan. Ann had just squished the beast.

“Take that, you extra-damosal freak!” Ann yelled with a malevolent grin “ You’ll NEVER going to HIT my head and TORTURE my sweetheart AArton with your FAKE Dippers!!” She yelled at the dissolving pulp, hitting it over and over again.

“AHmm, Mom? The thing’s dead” Mabel interrupted her. Ann stopped, and looked at the teens, looking at her with a brief shock.

“Oh…” She said, dropping the pan and fixing her hair. “Sorry for that, the thrill of the hunt” She said, letting go a little chuckle


	7. A Tale of Love and Monsters

\- Pines Residence; Piedmont, California. Around 11:00 PM…

Disaster. That was the Word of the Day with all accuracy. At least, for the poor Pines household, if such term could apply for nearly midnight.

Room by room, Ford and Ann made notes about how much the loss balance was increasing, while Stan took every piece of fallen furniture too destroyed to be useful and put it on the front garden. For the sake of his own style, he took the liberty to shatter to pieces the heavy furniture aided with his baseball bat he always had in his car, to just after put said pieces on the trash. At some point, he didn’t know when, Aaron joined to his orgy of fulfilling destruction; his preferred weapon: an ax Mabel brought from Gravity Falls the last summer they were there. Luckily for them, the Time Cocoon had blocked the sound of their fight with the Memomorph, so when some random neighbor came to ask what they were doing smashing their furniture at that time of night, they simply said they found termites and had to act quickly to protect their house.

In the fallen dining room, the scene was not so different. Aiden tried for a while to mop the floor, but Waddles was insisting in eat the dinner with great content.

“Waddles-Whaddles no… Erghh! Ok, eat. At least someone can finish it” He said with defeat. Waddles oinked merrily, as he kept cleaning the floor at his own piggy way.

Scattered across the house, the twins put in place every thing that wasn’t broken or too damaged.

Easily, they could’ve waited for the morning to begin with the cleaning, but the immediate atmosphere of awkwardness that fell over the house once defeated the monster turned the easiest way to avoid talking, into the ruling activity in which all of them automatically involved. No words were exchanged aside the account of damages, and an occasional groan of Stan at their mention; that bill was going to be very, very expensive. Maybe some time the twins could chuckle at the sound of his complains, but nothing more, and nothing less.

The first one passed, and then the second one, and the pines family (and Aiden) was still working on their avoiding duty, until there wasn’t a single thing remaining to clean, put in place, destroy, or just let where it was. A lonely plate put in the dishwasher for Mabel was the signature that indicated the break time was over, and now was the time to deal with the big, cosmic elephant in the room. Aaron and Ann looked at their daughter with stern glances, and she knew they were going to discuss the thing. She gulped, and slipped out of the kitchen. There, between the nearly empty place, Aaron stood over the kitchen desk and sighed deeply.

_Gooooooood I don’t want to do this._

“Aaron?” Ann asked, walking towards him to try to comfort him.

“I am ashamed, sweetie” Aaron replied with low tune. “Deeply, utterly soaked in shame. What I was thinking?”. His wife smiled at him, despite he was still looking at the kitchen desk, and took his shoulders, recharging her head over his neck as she caressed his husband’s shoulders with her thumbs.

“Being fair I just shocked. I left you alone with this” She replied, feeling ashamed as well .

“I would have preferred to just shock. How I’ll look at them at the eye after how I reacted?” he asked himself in disbelief. “In some way I thank the monster for stop me, I was about to say horrible things; so horrible things!” He said, making fists over the kitchen desk. “And know – I don’t know, I know now this whole facet of them that – how the heck we didn’t get aware of that?! Dipper has that frigging giant tooth in the wall of his room!. Gooood… The only we had to do was to listen”

“Well, we didn’t believe them the first time they told us. But they’re still here. That means they still want to talk to us about all of what we’ve lost of their lives, and to talk about… _that_” Ann said, still half-digesting the idea. Aaron smiled, and covered one of his wife’s hands with one of his.

“Right, let’s do this” He accepted.

Some minutes later, the Pines family (not counting the Grunkles; they were making time in the kitchen along Aiden) was reunited in what left of the living room. Without the couches and the TV, the room was surprisingly void. Luckily (most of) the table’s chairs and survived the Memomorph, so they were sitting over chairs. Two for Aaron and Ann at one side, and two more for the twins on the other side. Aaron and Ann sat first, to next invite their children to pass and sit as well. There was a moment of silence and expectation, in which the Pines parents prepared their argument and relaxed, knowing that what they were going to do was going to hurt. A lot.

Their children weren’t even looking at them, now deprived of the chill and comfortable atmosphere that took them to form an entire night. And that was killing Aaron more than anything.

“Kids” Aaron broke the silence, and the twins raised their heads to face them. “When the night began I had – we had some sort of _impressions_ about what was going to happen. So… What you tried to do – don’t take me bad, I.. I”

“We weren’t prepared for such kind of news” Ann finished her husband’s sentence. “SO, taking in consideration what we just saw, and the lot of things we have to process about our own views of the world, weeee believe we have no _enough _information to take a right decision about what is happening with you two. So…” Ann stopped, stacking in her argument as well.

“Taking in consideration the fact that you planned all of this with the most care possible, we will let you to explain what is happening” He said. Dipper and Mabel looked at them with hopeful expressions, and rolled their eyes one each other just the enough to recognize that the other was listening what one listened. “But. We have some questions before”

Their glances tensed for a moment. Discretely, they tangled hands together, seeking the braveness they needed to hear what they parents had to say.

“We have to assume that.. all those things you’ve told Aiden about the.. things you lived in Gravity Falls are true, right? You know, the whole deal of the _zombies _and the – the”

“Don’t forget the pterodactyl, honey” Aaron pointed at her wife with some thrill.

“Yep, the pterodactyl, overall” Ann inquired. “All of that is real and exists, right?”

Dipper and Mabel looked each other for a moment, and Mabel nodded silently.

“Yep, all of that is real” Dipper said, looking away as his sister nodded. Aaron panted aloud, recharging himself on the chair and taking his hands behind his head. Ann recharged her head over her fingers for a moment; evidently, it was going to be a long talk.

“Oh right” Aaron said, going back to his original stance. “So, said that, we can assume that despite all the neglecting and.. maybe irresponsible the Uncles appeared to be in your stories, they had been in fact trustful and they had taken care of you when you were at their care and more important. We can count on them to keep _this_ that has been happening between you two under the veil of the public eye, right?”

“Yes! In fact – I” Dipper tried to say.

“De even didn’t –“ Mabel complemented

“Told them about that. Kinda they figured it for themselves when we invited them” Dipper finished, rubbing his nap and lowering his eyes.

“Yes. We get the reference” Ann said. “That’s part of why we are doing this. We.. we were once at the other side of the room facing rejection”

“So” Aaron began to say “we’re going to let you two to explain ourselves as much as you planned to do it originally. But before I got a last question” Aaron said, getting a little more serious. “Does someone else know something about _this_?”

“Nop” Dipper asked quickly.

“Only Aiden. And the Grunkles, for what we know” Mabel said, trying to smile as she looked away as well.

“Good. I’ll automatically infer we can trust him due all the affection he has for you two and the loyalty you have showed towards them. So..” Aaron said.

“We’ll let you the explanation” Ann finished. “So, please be sincere. We can acknowledge this is something true and serious between you two due the way you tried to tell us this, but if we are going to build our trust about _this_, we’ll have to hear the story. Just – “

“Just don’t be_ too_ specific if there’s a part in which – We know you’re teens and teens do –“

Dipper and Mabel’s faces reddened at the moment, and horrified expressions took place.

“Oh gosh! Daaad!” Mabel exclaimed, making fist with her hands and closing her eyes.

“Oh god I’m not hearing this –!” Dipper exclaimed as well, hiding his face between his hands in utter shame.

“It’s ok it’s ok!” Aaron interrupted. “We –“

“We just settle it right?” Ann complemented. “Ok, let’s everyone take a breath ok?”

The twins breathed deep, until they felt the emotional cold-water bucket to go away. Talking about _The Bees and the Birds_ with their parents when the time began was already hard to hold; now talking about _their The Birds and the Bees_with them was a whole new level of awkwardness. So, after pant a few times, the twins were ready to talk.

“Well, everything began with me. It was some day of March when…” Dipper began to talk.

So, taking turns, the twins began to tell their love story. At first there was a whole atmosphere of uncomfortability when they recalled their first hints of romantic attraction, and the abrupt confessions. Then they passed to the First Hit, and non-coherent argument was heard without an exchange of massive amounts of blushing, hiding faces, and lots of “We get it” of their parents’ side.

Then they passed to tell them about how they got distant during the terrible Age of Silence,.. and they began to cry as they told them about. The level of emotional heaviness that weighed over them during that time was too hard even to just recall it, and more than one time, they just stopped to hold hands for a while before to regain the enough stretch to keep with the story, as silent tears rolled over their parents’ cheeks as well. How bad they could have reacted if they had caught them in the middle of that hell, how much they could have ruined them in such intimate ways, were fast but powerful thoughts that crossed their minds, leveling some guilt in the way.

From the kitchen, there was some exchange of supportive glances between the Grunkles, as Aiden just stood recharged over the kitchen desk, looking at the entrance of the kitchen with a lonely tear running over his serious face, him remembering his own old guilt, long time ago forgiven, but hard to recall as well.

Next that, they passed to tell them about their final confession, and their settlement as a couple, in heart and soul. There was when they began to mention Aiden as their ally, and their sort of comedic-drama they had lived together. Then they referred the argument, and their tears ran once more, but once told that, they kept with the semi-comic side of that story, until they finished to tell their plan until that day.

“Aaaaaand well, we’re here know” Mabel finished with a brief pant.

Their parents looked each other, back into some sort of their original shock, when they looked back at their children.

“Can you give us a moment, kids?” Ann asked. The next second they stood from the chairs and almost ran to the kitchen, from which their actual occupants ran to the dining room as fast as they could.

Now in the kitchen, they looked each other for a moment, before to automatically wrap each other, between hard breaths and brief sobs.

“I can’t believe we will do this!” Aaron exclaimed, chuckling hard.

“Neither me!!” Ann replied with equal aims.

“Gooooood, holy f*ck!!” Aaron said next.

“We’re so messed up!” Ann exclaimed, laughing with mixed content. “Can we just stay like this another couple of centuries? I like it.. I just like it”

“Totally agreed, my love” Aaron said back.

A few minutes after, they went back to the living room, pretending to be serious. They sat with solemn aims, and addressed their children.

“Weeell, I and your mother have been discussing this situation… And we have some conditions for you” Aaron began to say. “First one. I get you two will want to keep as near as possible during your college years, but Dipper, you’ll understand you have potential, a lot. So, I’ll give you a month to settle a definite offer of study place as near as possible of Mabel. If you can’t, then you’ll have to accept the MIT’s offer”

“How you –“ Dipper asked, slightly confused.

“I check the mail Dipper, I check the mail. Are we clear with that?” Aaron insisted with a serious dance. The twins looked each other for a moment, and next Dipper nodded.

“Good. Now’s the second one” Ann said. “We get you two made all of this because you trusted us; so, in the future, if anything happens, whatever, you’ll not doubt in talk us about. You’ll understand that what’s between you two is a serious threat of incarceration in most of this country, and you haven’t to be afraid of request our help with whatever the menace could be, ok?

“Yes” Mabel said.

“Right” Dipper said almost at the same time.

“Ok. Then the third one” Aaron said. “The remaining of our time together in this house… please, try to keep as most as possible the level of _discretion_ about your… _intimacy_” he said next, struggling to pronounce what he was saying. “You had done a very good work at that and even when we consent it, we really don’t waaaant to know when you – “

“God just stop it there” Dipper exclaimed, already flushed like a tomato with a fist over his forehead.

“We get it, seriously” Mabel inquired, flushed as well, looking away.

“OK. Here’s the last one” Ann said. “You’re gonna compensate the poor Aiden for all the trouble you two got for him. Seriously, even his hair used to be _pointier_ the last year; I feel he lost care for himself due the stress –“

“I heard you!” Aiden yelled from the distance. The twins chuckled, having already noticed the growing raggedness of their friend. “I heard that too!”

“Well, actually we were thinking in take Aiden to Gravity Falls during winter” Dipper said.

“Yeah, I’ve told them so much about our summers there that he wants to go. You can go as well, if you like to” Mabel inquired, smiling at their parents.

“Ehhh what the heck, that could be a grat idea to spend the holidays” Aaron said, looking at his surroundings. “Something tells me we’re going to have a plenty of time recovering our furniture”

The Pines family laughed briefly, before their parents could get serious again.

“Son, having understood, aside that conditions, we’ll,…” Ann tried to say.

“We’ll accept your relationship” Aaron complemented. “Come on kids, let’s share a hug” He said, standing from his chair

So the twins stood from the chairs at the same time that their parents, sharing all a big, warm family hug. A tear of two came from the twins, as they were enveloped by their beloved parents.

“Thank you” Dipper said quietly, wrapped in the hug.

“You two are so brave… Keep that braveness always” Ann replied. All of them closed their eyes, sharing the warm of the moment, when they heard a sudden raspberry coming from the kitchen’s entrance.

“Ahmm, I don’t want to interrupt, but was the dining room’s window broken?” Aiden asked.

-

Over the wet pavement, a pair of blue-booted feet walked in middle street. Iluminated by the lamp posts’ bulbs, the female figure walked away, casting a beastly shadow over the humid ground. The female figure turned back for a moment, looking at the now far Pines house. The being, wearing Mason’s face, grinned malevolently.

“That was harder than I believed. But we’ll meet again. I swear.”

The female figure turned back and kept walking at the unknown, whistling a very catchy old song.

_We’ll met again,_

_Don’ know where, Don’ know where._

_But I’ll know we’ll met again some sunny day…_

_The End…?_


End file.
